On Tuesday, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell and other conservative leaders released a letter calling on Google to explain reports and allegations that the search engine is attempting to block conservative sites and exclude voices that don’t fit the liberal narrative. (A similar letter has also been sent to members of Congress, asking them to investigate.)
The letter to Google can be found, in its entirety, below:
August 20, 2019
Mr. Sundar Pichai
Chief Executive Officer
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Dear Mr. Pichai,
We are writing today to ask that you provide a detailed response to the August 14 document release by Project Veritas which appears to show that Google blocked conservative websites on one of your news platforms.
When questioned before Congress in December of last year about whether your company manipulated its search results, you unequivocally denied it.
In March, a study by Robert Epstein identified pro-liberal bias in Google search results that helped flip three Orange County, CA, congressional districts in the 2018 midterm elections. Nationwide, Epstein found the results may have influenced 4.6 million undecided voters.
In April, the Daily Caller reported that Google’s Trust and Safety team manually manipulated various search features to exclude a number of conservative websites including the American Spectator, Gateway Pundit and Conservative Tribune.
In June, video leaked of a Google manager claiming the company was training its algorithms to prevent the 2016 election outcome from happening again.
Now we have learned that a Google app was blocking conservative websites including The Daily Caller, NewsBusters, Rush Limbaugh, and many more.
And the August 14 document leak also explained how the “Twiddler” system lets Google/YouTube workers rank search results based upon what your companies want emphasized or de-emphasized. Manipulated topics included pro-life advocacy along with several political and conservative organizations, like The Heritage Foundation.
Senator Ted Cruz attempted to get to the bottom of at least some of these instances during a July Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, but the Google representative dodged most of the questioning. It seems that in these, and other cases that have come to light in recent years, Google’s strategy seems to be to say as little as possible and hope that everyone moves on from the story.
In addition to providing an explanation for the past incidents that have already been brought to light, we demand to know what policies, programs, algorithms or any other business practices are, or have been in place to censor conservative content, and we call on you to disclose them and eliminate them immediately. If there are none currently in place, then we want your public commitment there will be none in the future. Further, we want to know what steps Google is taking to ensure it will not happen again.
Please provide your prompt response. We will publish your response or call attention to your lack thereof.
Sincerely,
L. Brent Bozell
Founder and President
Media Research Center
Morton Blackwell
Chairman
Weyrich Lunch
Byron Schlommach
Director
1889 Institute
Lady Brigitte Gabriel
Founder and Chairman
ACT for America
Tim Wildmon
President
American Family Association
Jon Schweppe
Director of Policy and Government Affairs
American Principles Project
Mark Fitzgibbons
President of Corporate Affairs
America Target Advertising, Inc.
Gary Bauer
CEO and President
American Values
John Hinderaker
President
Center of the American Experiment
David N. Bossie
President
Citizens United
Penny Nance
CEO and President
Concerned Women for America
The Honorable George K. Rasley, Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
James Nolan, Esq.
President
Crossroads Pro-Life
Adam Brandon
President
Freedom Works
Christie Lee McNally
Founder
Free Our Internet
Gene Mills
President
Louisiana Family Forum
Charles Copeland
President
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
John-Henry Westen
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
LifeSiteNews.com
Frank Lasée
President
The Heartland Institute
Justin Danhof
General Counsel
National Center for Public Policy Research
Rod Martin
Founder and CEO
The Martin Organization
Kevin D. Freeman
Founder and Chairman
National Security Investment Consultant Institute
James O’Keefe
Founder and President
Project Veritas
Kristan Hawkins
President
Students for Life of America
Jenny Beth Martin
Honorary Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Action
Floyd Brown
Publisher
The Western Journal
C. Preston Noell III
President
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
David Kupelian
Vice President and Managing Editor
WorldNetDaily
Craig Shirley
Author
Ronald Reagan Biographer
James Martin
Founder and Chairman
60 Plus Association
Saulius Anuzis
President
60 Plus Association
Allen West
Senior Fellow
Media Research Center
Terry Schilling
Executive Director
American Principles Project
Steven Ertelt
Editor
LifeNews.com
Richard A. Viguerie
Chairman
ConservativeHQ.com
Kathleen Patten
President and CEO
American Target Advertising
Brian Brown
President
International Organization for the Family
Ryan Bomberger
Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer
The Radiance Foundation
Tom McCabe
CEO
Freedom Foundation
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
CC:
Senator Mitch McConnell
Senator Lindsey Graham
Senator Ted Cruz
Senator Joshua Hawley
Senator Elizabeth Warren
Representative Kevin McCarthy
Representative Jim Jordan
Representative Doug Collins
Representative Tulsi Gabbard
